The professional era has changed the game as a spectacle, beyond all recognition. What the Premiership now offers is a fast-moving and skilful athletic contest a world away from the often static mud-bound struggles of yesteryear. What’s more, the game these days is cleverly marketed and expertly presented on TV. The premiership is in the hands of BT Sport and they’ve shown themselves to be excellent partners; the average weekend viewing figures for rugby on BT is in excess of 800,000 and England’s success at this World Cup is likely to give that a further boost.
England’s match against the All Blacks last weekend recorded an audience of 10 million — at 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning, mark you — which suggests there’s a very big market for the game out there and tomorrow’s final will draw a massive last audience. An England victory will undoubtedly supercharge the game’s popularity, so it’s reasonable to expect the growth to continue.
The charge is often thrown at rugby that it is an elitist sport and therefore one that cannot move the country as football does. The hoariest of clichés is that of Barbour-jacketed rich men doling out champagne and smoked salmon to their posh mates from the tailgate of their Range Rovers in the Twickenham car park on match day in the Six Nations.
Such people do exist, but they’re far from typical — and anyway, are they so different from the prawn sandwich munchers in the VIP boxes at football grounds? But the everyday reality of rugby is very different. Anyone who thinks rugby is a sport for toffs should make a visit to a ground like Kingsholm, home of Gloucester: sometimes nicknamed ‘Castle Grim’, the oldest stand at the ground, ‘The Shed’, is about as earthy as it gets. Anyone attending match day there will be quickly disabused of any notion that rugby is elitist. Furthermore, some of the rising stars of the sport — men like the outstanding prop forward Kyle Sinckler — give the lie to the ‘toff’ charge.
Sinckler is a formidable player but his life story is an inspiring tale of how rugby can change individual lives. Raised by his mum on a tough council estate in Tooting, south London, Sinckler was, by all accounts, an aggressive boy. But a friend’s suggestion that he should try rugby led to him signing on as a schoolboy player with Battersea Ironsides, a club founded by soldiers from the Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War. Suddenly that natural aggression found its proper outlet and, combined with a natural athletic talent, he rose rapidly through the ranks and was capped for England under-16s.
Two weeks ago, as Sinckler crashed over for a try under the posts against the Aussies, that promise was fulfilled and it’s not unreasonable to think his achievements will have ignited ambition in other young hearts. And Sinckler is far from alone: ex-public schoolboys are still probably over-represented in the ranks of professional rugby players but that is changing.
For one thing, the rewards on offer for professional players these days are tempting: the average salary for a player in the English Premiership is now more than £200,000 and for star players much higher than that. Charles Piutau, formerly of Auckland, New Zealand, became rugby’s first “million pound man” when he signed for Bristol last year.
One of the factors that previously prevented rugby competing for talent outside the ranks of the already comfortably off was that you couldn’t make a decent living at it. That is no longer so. Admittedly rugby players, even the best of them, earn a lot less than the highest paid footballers but by most people’s standards they still look pretty good.
Given all that, the outlook for English rugby is rosy. Old prejudices about rugby being an exclusively middle-class sport are withering away under the impact of professionalism and the wider audience the sport is now reaching.
If England do lift the trophy this Saturday — and the omens are good — rugby will enjoy a moment in the spotlight which will attract more people — players and spectators — into the rugby family. A victory parade through London is being mooted, probably next Tuesday; there will be a welcome lifting of the national mood and one not exclusively confined to the ranks of old, white men (though we, too, will be among those celebrating).
As for Boris, I can’t see him passing up this opportunity: tea and photo-opportunity at No 10, Mr Sinckler?
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